The Omicron COVID-19 variant has become the latest speed bump for shorthanded U.S. offsite construction factories.
It really doesn’t matter what side of the pandemic debate you’re on, the results are a fact. Factory output is down slightly even though we still have huge backlogs. The supply chain is being hit again with many suppliers reporting little or no product arriving to replenish their inventory which means they are having a tough time supplying their factory customers.
The latest wave of the health crisis, driven by the highly contagious Omicron variant, has forced airline cancellations, closed stores, curbed output at some modular home factories, and shut classrooms across the U.S. The surge is exacerbating an already tight labor market and forced government health officials to curb how long it says workers need to isolate once they’re infected.
The U.S. economy added 199,000 jobs last month, according to a closely watched report from the Labor Department released Friday, and the jobless rate dipped to 3.9 percent from 4.2 percent in November, underscoring the tight supply of workers.
The scramble to fill open jobs has boosted wages and fuelled a surge of inflation. Friday’s report showed another round of strong gains in paychecks, with average hourly wages up 4.7 percent from a year ago.
Many manufacturers, pressed to stay open throughout the pandemic, have found ways to keep assembly lines rolling. And to be sure, many say they are so far handling the latest wave of illness without major production cutbacks.
Modular home factories have just been hit with a 40% increase in lumber pricing and the supply chain shortages are still prevalent. But these factories learned quite a lot from the problems of 2021 and many of them have put directives in place to prevent last year’s problems.
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Gary Fleisher is Editor in Chief of Modular Home Source and Offsite Builder. Email at [email protected]
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